Fax

Fax (short for facsimiwe), sometimes cawwed tewecopying or tewefax (de watter short for tewefacsimiwe), is de tewephonic transmission of scanned printed materiaw (bof text and images), normawwy to a tewephone number connected to a printer or oder output device. The originaw document is scanned wif a fax machine (or a tewecopier), which processes de contents (text or images) as a singwe fixed graphic image, converting it into a bitmap, and den transmitting it drough de tewephone system in de form of audio-freqwency tones. The receiving fax machine interprets de tones and reconstructs de image, printing a paper copy.[1] Earwy systems used direct conversions of image darkness to audio tone in a continuous or anawog manner. Since de 1980s, most machines moduwate de transmitted audio freqwencies using a digitaw representation of de page which is compressed to qwickwy transmit areas which are aww-white or aww-bwack.

Scottish inventor Awexander Bain worked on chemicaw mechanicaw fax type devices and in 1846 was abwe to reproduce graphic signs in waboratory experiments. He received British patent 9745 on May 27, 1843 for his "Ewectric Printing Tewegraph."[2]Frederick Bakeweww made severaw improvements on Bain's design and demonstrated a tewefax machine. The Pantewegraph was invented by de Itawian physicist Giovanni Casewwi. He introduced de first commerciaw tewefax service between Paris and Lyon in 1865, some 11 years before de invention of de tewephone.[3][4]

In 1880, Engwish inventor Shewford Bidweww constructed de scanning phototewegraph dat was de first tewefax machine to scan any two-dimensionaw originaw, not reqwiring manuaw pwotting or drawing. Around 1900, German physicist Ardur Korn invented de Biwdtewegraph, widespread in continentaw Europe especiawwy, since a widewy noticed transmission of a wanted-person photograph from Paris to London in 1908, used untiw de wider distribution of de radiofax. Its main competitors were de Béwinographe by Édouard Bewin first, den since de 1930s de Hewwschreiber, invented in 1929 by German inventor Rudowf Heww, a pioneer in mechanicaw image scanning and transmission, uh-hah-hah-hah.

The 1888 invention of de tewautograph by Ewisha Gray marked a furder devewopment in fax technowogy, awwowing users to send signatures over wong distances, dus awwowing de verification of identification or ownership over wong distances.[5]

On May 19, 1924, scientists of de AT&T Corporation "by a new process of transmitting pictures by ewectricity" sent 15 photographs by tewephone from Cwevewand to New York City, such photos suitabwe for newspaper reproduction, uh-hah-hah-hah. Previouswy, photographs had been sent over de radio using dis process.[6]

The Western Union "Deskfax" fax machine, announced in 1948, was a compact machine dat fit comfortabwy on a desktop, using speciaw spark printer paper.[7]

As a designer for de Radio Corporation of America (RCA), in 1924, Richard H. Ranger invented de wirewess photoradiogram, or transoceanic radio facsimiwe, de forerunner of today’s "fax" machines. A photograph of President Cawvin Coowidge sent from New York to London on November 29, 1924 became de first photo picture reproduced by transoceanic radio facsimiwe. Commerciaw use of Ranger’s product began two years water. Awso in 1924, Herbert E. Ives of AT&T transmitted and reconstructed de first cowor facsimiwe, a naturaw-cowor photograph of siwent fiwm star Rudowph Vawentino in period costume, using red, green and bwue cowor separations.[8]

Beginning in de wate 1930s, de Finch Facsimiwe system was used to transmit a "radio newspaper" to private homes via commerciaw AM radio stations and ordinary radio receivers eqwipped wif Finch's printer, which used dermaw paper. Sensing a new and potentiawwy gowden opportunity, competitors soon entered de fiewd, but de printer and speciaw paper were expensive wuxuries, AM radio transmission was very swow and vuwnerabwe to static, and de newspaper was too smaww. After more dan ten years of repeated attempts by Finch and oders to estabwish such a service as a viabwe business, de pubwic, apparentwy qwite content wif its cheaper and much more substantiaw home-dewivered daiwy newspapers, and wif conventionaw spoken radio buwwetins to provide any "hot" news, stiww showed onwy a passing curiosity about de new medium.[9]

By de wate 1940s, radiofax receivers were sufficientwy miniaturized to be fitted beneaf de dashboard of Western Union's "Tewecar" tewegram dewivery vehicwes.[7]

In 1964, Xerox Corporation introduced (and patented) what many consider to be de first commerciawized version of de modern fax machine, under de name (LDX) or Long Distance Xerography. This modew was superseded two years water wif a unit dat wouwd truwy set de standard for fax machines for years to come. Up untiw dis point facsimiwe machines were very expensive and hard to operate. In 1966, Xerox reweased de Magnafax Tewecopiers, a smawwer, 46-pound facsimiwe machine. This unit was far easier to operate and couwd be connected to any standard tewephone wine. This machine was capabwe of transmitting a wetter-sized document in about six minutes. The first sub-minute, digitaw fax machine was devewoped by Dacom, which buiwt on digitaw data compression technowogy originawwy devewoped at Lockheed for satewwite communication, uh-hah-hah-hah.[10][11]

By de wate 1970s, many companies around de worwd (especiawwy Japan) entered de fax market. Very shortwy after a new wave of more compact, faster and efficient fax machines wouwd hit de market. Xerox continued to refine de fax machine for years after deir ground-breaking first machine. In water years it wouwd be combined wif copier eqwipment to create de hybrid machines we have today dat copy, scan and fax. Some of de wesser known capabiwities of de Xerox fax technowogies incwuded deir Edernet enabwed Fax Services on deir 8000 workstations in de earwy 1980s.

Prior to de introduction of de ubiqwitous fax machine, one of de first being de Exxon Qwip[12] in de mid-1970s, facsimiwe machines worked by opticaw scanning of a document or drawing spinning on a drum. The refwected wight, varying in intensity according to de wight and dark areas of de document, was focused on a photoceww so dat de current in a circuit varied wif de amount of wight. This current was used to controw a tone generator (a moduwator), de current determining de freqwency of de tone produced. This audio tone was den transmitted using an acoustic coupwer (a speaker, in dis case) attached to de microphone of a common tewephone handset. At de receiving end, a handset’s speaker was attached to an acoustic coupwer (a microphone), and a demoduwator converted de varying tone into a variabwe current dat controwwed de mechanicaw movement of a pen or penciw to reproduce de image on a bwank sheet of paper on an identicaw drum rotating at de same rate.

Awdough businesses usuawwy maintain some kind of fax capabiwity, de technowogy has faced increasing competition from Internet-based awternatives. In some countries, because ewectronic signatures on contracts are not yet recognized by waw, whiwe faxed contracts wif copies of signatures are, fax machines enjoy continuing support in business.[14] In Japan, faxes are stiww used extensivewy for cuwturaw and graphemic reasons and are avaiwabwe for sending to bof domestic and internationaw recipients from over 81% of aww convenience stores nationwide. Convenience-store fax machines commonwy print de swightwy re-sized content of de sent fax in de ewectronic confirmation-swip, in A4 paper size.[15][16][17]

In many corporate environments, freestanding fax machines have been repwaced by fax servers and oder computerized systems capabwe of receiving and storing incoming faxes ewectronicawwy, and den routing dem to users on paper or via an emaiw (which may be secured). Such systems have de advantage of reducing costs by ewiminating unnecessary printouts and reducing de number of inbound anawog phone wines needed by an office.

The once ubiqwitous fax machine has awso begun to disappear from de smaww office and home office environments. Remotewy hosted fax-server services are widewy avaiwabwe from VoIP and e-maiw providers awwowing users to send and receive faxes using deir existing e-maiw accounts widout de need for any hardware or dedicated fax wines. Personaw computers have awso wong been abwe to handwe incoming and outgoing faxes using anawog modems or ISDN, ewiminating de need for a stand-awone fax machine. These sowutions are often ideawwy suited for users who onwy very occasionawwy need to use fax services.

There are severaw indicators of fax capabiwities: group, cwass, data transmission rate, and conformance wif ITU-T (formerwy CCITT) recommendations. Since de 1968 Carterphone decision, most fax machines have been designed to connect to standard PSTN wines and tewephone numbers.

Group 1 and 2 faxes are sent in de same manner as a frame of anawog tewevision, wif each scanned wine transmitted as a continuous anawog signaw. Horizontaw resowution depended upon de qwawity of de scanner, transmission wine, and de printer. Anawog fax machines are obsowete and no wonger manufactured. ITU-T Recommendations T.2 and T.3 were widdrawn as obsowete in Juwy 1996.

Group 1 faxes conform to de ITU-T Recommendation T.2. Group 1 faxes take six minutes to transmit a singwe page, wif a verticaw resowution of 96 scan wines per inch. Group 1 fax machines are obsowete and no wonger manufactured.

Group 2 faxes conform to de ITU-T Recommendations T.30 and T.3. Group 2 faxes take dree minutes to transmit a singwe page, wif a verticaw resowution of 96 scan wines per inch. Group 2 fax machines are awmost obsowete, and are no wonger manufactured. Group 2 fax machines can interoperate wif Group 3 fax machines.

A major breakdrough in de devewopment of de modern facsimiwe system was de resuwt of digitaw technowogy, where de anawog signaw from scanners was digitized and den compressed, resuwting in de abiwity to transmit high rates of data across standard phone wines. The first digitaw fax machine was de Dacom Rapidfax first sowd in wate 1960s, which incorporated digitaw data compression technowogy devewoped by Lockheed for transmission of images from satewwites.[10][11]

Group 3 and 4 faxes are digitaw formats, and take advantage of digitaw compression medods to greatwy reduce transmission times.

Group 3 faxes conform to de ITU-T Recommendations T.30 and T.4. Group 3 faxes take between six and fifteen seconds to transmit a singwe page (not incwuding de initiaw time for de fax machines to handshake and synchronize). The horizontaw and verticaw resowutions are awwowed by de T.4 standard to vary among a set of fixed resowutions:

Horizontaw: 100 scan wines per inch

Verticaw: 100 scan wines per inch ("Basic")

Horizontaw: 200 or 204 scan wines per inch

Verticaw: 100 or 98 scan wines per inch ("Standard")

Verticaw: 200 or 196 scan wines per inch ("Fine")

Verticaw: 400 or 391 (note not 392) scan wines per inch ("Superfine")

Horizontaw: 300 scan wines per inch

Verticaw: 300 scan wines per inch

Horizontaw: 400 or 408 scan wines per inch

Verticaw: 400 or 391 scan wines per inch ("Uwtrafine")

Group 4 faxes conform to de ITU-T Recommendations T.563, T.503, T.521, T.6, T.62, T.70, T.411 to T.417. They are designed to operate over 64 kbit/s digitaw ISDN circuits. The awwowed resowutions, a superset of dose in de T.4 recommendation, are specified in de T.6 recommendation, uh-hah-hah-hah.[18]

Fax Over IP (FoIP) can transmit and receive pre-digitized documents at near reawtime speeds using ITU-T recommendation T.38 to send digitised images over an IP network using JPEG compression, uh-hah-hah-hah. T.38 is designed to work wif VoIP services and often supported by anawog tewephone adapters used by wegacy fax machines dat need to connect drough a VoIP service. Scanned documents are wimited to de amount of time de user takes to woad de document in a scanner and for de device to process a digitaw fiwe. The resowution can vary from as wittwe as 150 DPI to 9600 DPI or more. This type of faxing is not rewated to de e-maiw to fax service dat stiww uses fax modems at weast one way.

Computer modems are often designated by a particuwar fax cwass, which indicates how much processing is offwoaded from de computer's CPU to de fax modem.

Cwass 1 fax devices do fax data transfer where de T.4/T.6 data compression and T.30 session management are performed by software on a controwwing computer. This is described in ITU-T recommendation T.31.[19]

Cwass 2 fax devices perform T.30 session management demsewves, but de T.4/T.6 data compression is performed by software on a controwwing computer. The rewevant ITU-T recommendation is T.32.[19]

Cwass 2.0 is different from Cwass 2.

Cwass 2.1 is an improvement of Cwass 2.0. Cwass 2.1 fax devices are referred to as "super G3"; dey seem to be a wittwe faster dan Cwass 1/2/2.0.

Cwass 3 fax devices are responsibwe for virtuawwy de entire fax session, given wittwe more dan a phone number and de text to send (incwuding rendering ASCII text as a raster image). These devices are not common, uh-hah-hah-hah.

Severaw different tewephone wine moduwation techniqwes are used by fax machines. They are negotiated during de fax-modemhandshake, and de fax devices wiww use de highest data rate dat bof fax devices support, usuawwy a minimum of 14.4 kbit/s for Group 3 fax.

As weww as specifying de resowution (and awwowabwe physicaw size of de image being faxed), de ITU-T T.4 recommendation specifies two compression medods for decreasing de amount of data dat needs to be transmitted between de fax machines to transfer de image. The two medods defined in T.4 are:[20]

Later, oder compression techniqwes were added as options to ITU-T recommendation T.30, such as de more efficient JBIG (T.82, T.85) for bi-wevew content, and JPEG (T.81), T.43, MRC (T.44), and T.45 for grayscawe, pawette, and cowour content.[22] Fax machines can negotiate at de start of de T.30 session to use de best techniqwe impwemented on bof sides.

Modified Huffman (MH), specified in T.4 as de one-dimensionaw coding scheme, is a codebook-based run-wengf encoding scheme optimised to efficientwy compress whitespace.[20] As most faxes consist mostwy of white space, dis minimises de transmission time of most faxes. Each wine scanned is compressed independentwy of its predecessor and successor.[20]

Modified READ (MR), specified as an optionaw two-dimensionaw coding scheme in T.4, encodes de first scanned wine using MH.[20] The next wine is compared to de first, de differences determined, and den de differences are encoded and transmitted.[20] This is effective as most wines differ wittwe from deir predecessor. This is not continued to de end of de fax transmission, but onwy for a wimited number of wines untiw de process is reset and a new 'first wine' encoded wif MH is produced. This wimited number of wines is to prevent errors propagating droughout de whowe fax, as de standard does not provide for error-correction, uh-hah-hah-hah. MR is an optionaw faciwity, and some fax machines do not use MR in order to minimise de amount of computation reqwired by de machine. The wimited number of wines is two for 'Standard' resowution faxes, and four for 'Fine' resowution faxes.

The ITU-T T.6 recommendation adds a furder compression type of Modified Modified READ (MMR), which simpwy awwows for a greater number of wines to be coded by MR dan in T.4.[18] This is because T.6 makes de assumption dat de transmission is over a circuit wif a wow number of wine errors such as digitaw ISDN. In dis case, dere is no maximum number of wines for which de differences are encoded.

JBIG performs adaptive compression, dat is bof de encoder and decoder cowwect statisticaw information about de transmitted image from de pixews transmitted so far, in order to predict de probabiwity for each next pixew being eider bwack or white. For each new pixew, JBIG wooks at ten nearby, previouswy transmitted pixews. It counts, how often in de past de next pixew has been bwack or white in de same neighborhood, and estimates from dat de probabiwity distribution of de next pixew. This is fed into an aridmetic coder, which adds onwy a smaww fraction of a bit to de output seqwence if de more probabwe pixew is den encountered.

The ITU-T T.85 "fax profiwe" constrains some optionaw features of de fuww JBIG standard, such dat codecs do not have to keep data about more dan de wast dree pixew rows of an image in memory at any time. This awwows de streaming of "endwess" images, where de height of de image may not be known untiw de wast row is transmitted.

ITU-T T.30 awwows fax machines to negotiate one of two options of de T.85 "fax profiwe":

In "basic mode", de JBIG encoder must spwit de image into horizontaw stripes of 128 wines (parameter L0=128), and restart de aridmetic encoder for each stripe.

A proprietary compression scheme empwoyed on Panasonic fax machines is Matsushita Whitewine Skip (MWS). It can be overwaid on de oder compression schemes, but is operative onwy when two Panasonic machines are communicating wif one anoder. This system detects de bwank scanned areas between wines of text, and den compresses severaw bwank scan wines into de data space of a singwe character. (JBIG impwements a simiwar techniqwe cawwed "typicaw prediction", if header fwag TPBON is set to 1.)

Group 3 fax machines transfer one or a few printed or handwritten pages per minute in bwack-and-white (bitonaw) at a resowution of 204×98 (normaw) or 204×196 (fine) dots per sqware inch. The transfer rate is 14.4 kbit/s or higher for modems and some fax machines, but fax machines support speeds beginning wif 2400 bit/s and typicawwy operate at 9600 bit/s. The transferred image formats are cawwed ITU-T (formerwy CCITT) fax group 3 or 4. Group 3 faxes have de suffix.g3 and de MIME typeimage/g3fax.

The most basic fax mode transfers in bwack and white onwy. The originaw page is scanned in a resowution of 1728 pixews/wine and 1145 wines/page (for A4). The resuwting raw data is compressed using a modified Huffman code optimized for written text, achieving average compression factors of around 20. Typicawwy a page needs 10 s for transmission, instead of about 3 minutes for de same uncompressed raw data of 1728×1145 bits at a speed of 9600 bit/s. The compression medod uses a Huffman codebook for run wengds of bwack and white runs in a singwe scanned wine, and it can awso use de fact dat two adjacent scanwines are usuawwy qwite simiwar, saving bandwidf by encoding onwy de differences.

Fax cwasses denote de way fax programs interact wif fax hardware. Avaiwabwe cwasses incwude Cwass 1, Cwass 2, Cwass 2.0 and 2.1, and Intew CAS. Many modems support at weast cwass 1 and often eider Cwass 2 or Cwass 2.0. Which is preferabwe to use depends on factors such as hardware, software, modem firmware, and expected use.

One of de advantages of inkjet printing is dat inkjets can affordabwy print in cowor; derefore, many of de inkjet-based fax machines cwaim to have cowor fax capabiwity. There is a standard cawwed ITU-T30e (formawwy ITU-T Recommendation T.30 Annex E [23]) for faxing in cowor; unfortunatewy, it is not widewy supported, so many of de cowor fax machines can onwy fax in cowor to machines from de same manufacturer.

Stroke speed in facsimiwe systems is de rate at which a fixed wine perpendicuwar to de direction of scanning is crossed in one direction by a scanning or recording spot. Stroke speed is usuawwy expressed as a number of strokes per minute. When de fax system scans in bof directions, de stroke speed is twice dis number. In most conventionaw 20f century mechanicaw systems, de stroke speed is eqwivawent to drum speed.[24]

As a precaution, dermaw fax paper is typicawwy not accepted in archives or as documentary evidence in some courts of waw unwess photocopied. This is because de image-forming coating is eradicabwe and brittwe, and it tends to detach from de medium after a wong time in storage.[25]

One popuwar awternative is to subscribe to an Internet fax service, awwowing users to send and receive faxes from deir personaw computers using an existing emaiw account. No software, fax server or fax machine is needed. Faxes are received as attached TIFF or PDF fiwes, or in proprietary formats dat reqwire de use of de service provider's software. Faxes can be sent or retrieved from anywhere at any time dat a user can get Internet access. Some services offer secure faxing to compwy wif stringent HIPAA and Gramm–Leach–Bwiwey Act reqwirements to keep medicaw information and financiaw information private and secure. Utiwizing a fax service provider does not reqwire paper, a dedicated fax wine, or consumabwe resources.[26]

Anoder awternative to a physicaw fax machine is to make use of computer software which awwows peopwe to send and receive faxes using deir own computers, utiwizing fax servers and unified messaging. A virtuaw (emaiw) fax can be printed out and den signed and scanned back to computer before being emaiwed. Awso de sender can attach a digitaw signature to de document fiwe.

Wif de surging popuwarity of mobiwe phones, virtuaw fax machines can now be downwoaded as appwications for Android and iOS. These appwications make use of de phone's internaw camera to scan fax documents for upwoad or dey can import from various cwoud services. [27]

^"4.12 Fiwing ruwes: 19.Newspaper extracts or dermaw facsimiwe paper shouwd not be preserved as archives. Such extracts shouwd be photocopied and de copy preserved. The originaw can den be destroyed." Office of Corporate & Legaw Affairs, University Cowwege Cork, Irewand